Facsimile-television system and facsimile signal transmitting method thereof

1. A facsimile-television control apparatus comprising: a television portion; a facsimile portion; a signal converting section for receiving a synchronization signal and a luminance signal from said television portion and for converting said luminance signal to a facsimile signal; a switching section for receiving said facsimile signal and for selecting one function among a group of functions which include: (i) transmitting and receiving other facsimile signals that are not produced by the signal converting section using said facsimile portion, (ii) transmitting said facsimile signal from said signal converting section to another facsimile device separate from said control apparatus, and (iii) printing an image based on the facsimile signal using the facsimile portion; and a facsimile control section for controlling the switching section to select among the group of functions.

2. The facsimile-television control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said signal converting section comprises: a comparator for receiving said luminance signal and a reference signal and for producing a binary luminance signal; memory for storing said binary luminance signal and then receiving a control signal for producing the stored signal; a run length encoder for converting an output data of said memory to a white and black run length value corresponding to said output data; and facsimile signal converting controlling means for receiving an output of said run length encoder and for producing said facsimile signal.

3. The facsimile-television control apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said run length encoder comprises: means for receiving said binary luminance signal from said memory and for producing a level change signal and a white and black signal, means for receiving said binary luminance signal and for counting the number of pixels of the received binary luminance signal; a latch for temporarily storing an output of said counting means and transmitting the temporarily stored data to said facsimile signal converting controlling means; and means for receiving said level change signal and a reset signal from said facsimile signal converting controlling means and for controlling said counting means.

4. The facsimile-television control apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said level change signal and white and black signal producing means comprises: means for delaying said binary luminance signal by one pixel and for producing said white and black signal; and means for receiving said white and black signal and said binary luminance signal and for producing said level change signal.

5. A method of outputting an image facsimile signal from a facsimile-television system having a television portion and a facsimile portion, the method comprising: receiving a synchronization signal and a luminance signal indicative of the image facsimile signal from the television portion; converting the luminance signal to a facsimile signal using the synchronization signal, the converting being performed in a signal converting section in the facsimile portion; and selecting one function from among a group of functions based on a received control signal, the functions including (i) transmitting and receiving other facsimile signals that are not produced by the signal converting section using the facsimile portion, (ii) transmitting the facsimile signal from the signal converting section to another facsimile device separate from the facsimile-television system, and (iii) printing an image based on the facsimile signal using the facsimile portion.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the signal converting step comprises: (a) generating a header corresponding to a facsimile format protocol and producing said header to a selection switching section; (b) generating a binary signal from said luminance signal and transmitting the binary luminance signal to a run length encoder bit by bit; (c) determining whether there is a level change signal with respect to said luminance signal during step (b); (d) when there is said level change signal, reading a run length value upon said level change signal and producing said facsimile signal with reference to a MH code table; (e) determining whether or not a fill data is added to said facsimile signal, producing EOL data and then advancing to step (b); (f) if there is said level change signal at step (c) determining whether or not a next pixel is an end of line of a page of data, and then if it is not said end, advancing to step (b) and if it is said end, reading a run length value thereof and after resetting said run length encoder, producing said facsimile signal with reference to said MH code table; (g) determining whether or not a fill data is added to said facsimile signal from step (f), producing said EOL data; (h) determining whether or not a next pixel is an end of line of said page, and then if it is not said end, advancing to step (b) and if it is said end, producing said EOL data six times.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the addition of said fill data at steps (e) and (g) is determined by comparing said facsimile signal to an average transmission signal number per one line.